Courage
by Naomilyloveless
Summary: An important day for Brittany causes Santana to reflect back upon their first encounter and the road that brought them to where they are now.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello reader! First of all, I would like to thank you for choosing to stop by and give my story a chance! :-) The idea for this has been playing on my mind all week long and I've basically written the whole thing in my head, so now it's just a case of transferring it to text!(Of course, only if anyone wants to read it) Secondly... well, I don't really have a secondly, I just hope you like it enough that you want me to continue... if you do, please let me know? (Not fishing for ego boosting reviews or anything, a simple '!' in the review section to let me know there's enough interest, or even any interest in this story will suffice:-]) Happy Reading!**

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><p>The rich smell of coffee, the sound of cutlery clanging together and a smashing mug, woke me from a dreamless sleep.<p>

I lay unmoving, eyes closed, for just a moment, basking in the standard 30 seconds of contentment before the day's reality hit. I felt a thick lump form in my throat and a chill that fluttered through my entire body causing me to feel nauseated. My hands and face felt suddenly numb and I forced my lids to remain shut.

The noise from the kitchen subsided.

There was a brief passing silence until the door to my bedroom creaked open and I peaked slightly through my lashes to identify the intruder.

"Oh good, you're awake." The much too chipper voice of Quinn Fabray floated to my ears. I reached behind my head and pulled at the other half of my pillow to cover the left side of my face, shielding me from the short haired blonde leaning against the doorframe.

"Go way" I mumbled through my fluffy barrier.

I noted her footsteps nearing and tightened my hold on the pillow, but my strength was weak at this early hour and she had the upper hand, grabbing it entirely from under my head and throwing it to the ground.

"Come on. Up!" She ordered, tugging now at the duvet.

"Quinn, I swear to God if you don't go away right now I'm gonna…" I threatened, opening one eye and doing my best to shoot daggers. She remained unfazed, merely crossing her arms and smirking in response.

"You're gonna what?" She teased.

Quinn was one of the few people that saw through my tough cookie exterior, she knew me too well by now; I hadn't followed through on a threat of violence since I was a teenager.

Sighing in frustration I sat up, pulling the duvet closer for comfort.

"What'd you break?" I wasn't angry, it was not uncommon for Quinn to be clumsy with dishes, what was strange was how co-ordinated she was in everything else.

"Just a mug." She shrugged indifferently. "I made you pancakes."

"I'm not hungry." I wasn't sure if this was the truth, I now felt somewhere between starving and violently nauseous.

"I don't care if you're hungry or not! I made food and you'll eat it. You need your energy, it's a big day." I was used to Quinn bossing me around, she'd been doing it since we were children, but it had become a lot less patronising as we grew older. Still, I had learned there is very little use in arguing with Quinn Fabray.

Quinn was my oldest friend, she knew me better than almost anyone else in the world and I guess, through that reasoning, made her my best friend.

Our friendship wasn't your typical, organic relationship. We didn't meet on the playground on the first day of school and have an instant connection, in fact we didn't even particularly like each other very much during our school days. We were more 'frenemies' than friends during that time, using each other mostly for popularity status once we reached highschool. She was head cheerleader and I had been her co-captain, we were expected like to each other, or at the very least, pretend.

Our mothers had been friends themselves since they were teenagers, but _actual_ best friends. They married our fathers, who coincidentally also happened to be best friends, within a short time period of one another and had rejoiced at discovering they were both simultaneously pregnant.

To this day I still believe it was planned.

Quinn and I were born only a month apart and were from then on, naturally forced by our mothers to bond. As anyone who has been forced into a friendship with someone they had no desire to be friends with knows, this is not a successful bonding mechanism.

Over the years however, once all the angst-y, teenage drama of high school had passed and we realised how trivial the whole totem pole of popularity was, we actually grew to be very good friends. She was the first person I had come out to as a lesbian, and that was during our less than friendly period. I suppose she was the closest thing to a true companion I had at the time; if nothing else, I had known her all my life and we had an unspoken trust, we kept each other's secrets. Her reaction to my revelation had really been the turning point in our relationship. She was understanding and compassionate and didn't ever push me to tell my parents or anyone else at school; she even went along with my charade during the brief period where I pretended to still be into guys and stood by me when the time eventually came to tell my parents.

Now, it was hard to imagine what my life would be like without the sassy green eyed, blonde.

"Stop staring at me like you're in love with me and get your ass out of bed." She mocked, playfully tapping my ass, enunciating the end of her sentence before leaving the room.

I followed her to the kitchen, where the broken pieces of the cup lay in a dustpan, the smell of pancakes wasn't as strong and I felt slightly guilty knowing they had probably cooled; Quinn hated cold pancakes. I kind of preferred them that way. She poured coffee into 'my' mug and went about fixing herself toast.

"So… how do you feel?" She asked cautiously, fiddling with the dial on the toaster.

I swallowed, with difficultly, on my mouthful of pancakes, the lump reforming in my throat. "How do you think?"

I didn't mean to be so brash with her but a cold sweat was washing over my body in short intervals and it was the only way I knew how to respond. Regardless, she didn't take offence.

Simply nodding and turning around to take a seat opposite me at the breakfast counter.

"I guess that's to be expected."

We finished our breakfast with idle chit chat about nothing in particular. Once I drained the very last drop of coffee from the machine, I stood up and a fresh bout of nerves coursed through me again.

Quinn didn't seem to notice, too distracted by her watch. "Look at the time! Hurry up and get ready or we're gonna be late!"

I glanced at the wall clock and realised she was right, but was reluctant to move.

"I-I don't think I wanna go." I stuttered. I was anxious and it made me feel sick. The last thing I needed right now was to see _her_.

Quinn looked at me, slightly incredulous. "What do you mean you don't wanna go? You don't have a choice! Now go get ready!"

"I can't." I shook my head and kept my eyes glued to the floor.

"Santana." Without having to look up, I could tell Quinn was positioned only a foot or so away, hands on hips. "You promised her you'd be there! You know how important today is to Brittany. You can't _not _go."

Her voice was softer than her posture, like I said, Quinn knew me better than almost anyone, she knew when it was required to be stern with me and she knew when it was best to be gentle. Right now, she had chosen a mixture of both.

"I can't. I can't go there and watch Brittany marry someone else, not today." I answered, I knew I was making excuses and excuses wouldn't fly with Quinn.

"Okay, now you're being ridiculous. It would really hurt her if you, of all people, didn't show up to support her!" I nodded, knowing she spoke the truth. Satisfied that she had gotten through to me, she gave me a little nudge in the direction of the bedroom.

Once the door had closed, I leaned against it, steadying myself. I shut my eyes, just for a moment, gathering my thoughts, and opened them again, scanning the room for something, I'm not even sure what. Courage, perhaps?

That's when I spotted it, a picture, sitting neatly tucked among four or five others on the dresser across from the bed. I walked closer, taking it in my hands and studying it. I had forgotten it was even there, it was just one of those things in your home that you stop noticing over time and when it finally garners your attention again, you get this sudden feeling of warmth and it's like seeing it for the very first time.

It was a picture taken six years ago, just before I entered my sophmore year of college, of a small group of people, some of whom I kept regular contact with, others who had become people I emailed occasionally and sent Christmas cards to once a year. We all stood with goofy grins on our faces, standing outside the coffee shop we had worked in at the time, two of the boys holding an oversized cheque in one hand each, using their other hands to high five one another. The colour of the photograph was slightly faded, but I could still see how disgustingly vibrant that red exterior of the shop was, with it's tacky yellow lettering reading, 'Coffee Hut'. I couldn't help but smile at the memory of that particular day, but more than that, at the memory of that particular summer…..

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><p><strong>*Summer: 6 years ago*<strong>

I wrapped my arms tightly around my body, it wasn't particularly cold, but there was a light chill in the air and the sky was overcast, making it appear colder than what it really was.

Spring had just past and it had rained for most of it. The guy on the weather channel said it would pick up for the summer but so far, I saw no difference. It was early days though, so I tried to remain as optimistic as possible. Not really my strong suit.

I was in a better mood than usual this morning, my parents had set off on a two month cruise at 9am, leaving me with the house to myself for the entire summer. I felt as though I could breath again without them being so close. I had chosen to live at home while attending college and though my parents were both workaholics who paid me little attention these days, I felt constantly suffocated by their presence. They had a hold over me which I didn't like. I had decided mid-way through the year that I'd stay in the college dorms next year and so far that plan remained solid.

Quinn, who had initially declined my proposal of moving out with me(in a purely platonic sense), had seemed to come around to the idea, eventually agreeing. I put her change of heart down to what appeared to be some type of life crisis she was currently going through, where she had felt the need to wear a lot of black and dye her hair bright pink. Needless to say her deeply religious parents were none too pleased with her new clothing choices that often read phrases like 'Hell is so hot right now', and I assume their constant berating was largely the cause of her decision to come with me. But hey, I got my way so I wasn't about to question it.

I neared my bright red workplace and could already smell the thick aroma of caffeine that emitted from it. As far as part-time jobs go, well, not that I would know since I had never had one before this, it wasn't so bad. I had been working here for eight months now and was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed it. There was always something or other that needed to be done, so the day went by quickly and the other people that worked there were nice, a little grating from time to time but overall, I had no major problems with anyone, well, almost. We were all around the same age, apart from the manager, Will, but he was nice and integrated well into the group. Quinn had started there the same time as me; it was nice not being entirely alone on my first work venture.

I opened the door and heard the familiar ding of the overhead bell that usually signalled customers. However, it was 12am and the usual breakfast regulars were either finishing up or had already left and wouldn't be back until at least 2, which gave us a good amount of time to prepare. It wasn't usually particularly busy but we had some loyal customers and some drop ins that kept us going throughout the day.

I made my way to the staff area at the back of the shop, bumping in to Quinn on the way.

"Morning sunshine." She said with feigned enthusiasm.

"Back atcha bitch." This garnered a smile from my recently, perpetually grumpy friend and she bumped her shoulder into mine in a friendly gesture.

In the back room, I hung up my jacket and purse and grabbed my red apron with 'Coffee Hut' emblazoned on the front. If our uniform hadn't been entirely black, the apron could have been dire, but in fact, it didn't look half bad.

I exited the staff area through the second door that led to the kitchen. Some Elvis song sounded from the radio on request from our boss, Mr. Figgins, who insisted we only play this or country music, although no one ever thought to question why. Puck and Finn stood close together, both dressed in the standard uniform and wearing bright red washing up gloves, talking in hushed whispers.

"What's going on?" I questioned, intrigued as I neared them. They looked up, seeming somewhat startled by my intrusion but relaxing upon seeing me.

"Oh, it's just you." Puck said, relieved.

I gave him a quizzical look, unsure of whether or not to be offended.

Puck was our resident bad boy, so to speak. He had a reputation as a womanizer and had at some point or another, attempted to (most times successfully), make out with every female working in the establishment, bar me of course. Finn on the other hand was a gentle soul, a little dim, but he meant well and had a boyish charm about him. His biggest flaw was his absolutely abhorrent taste in women, well okay, one woman. He had briefly dated Quinn when we first began working here but that was a short lived romance that quickly fizzled when he walked in on her drunkenly making out with Puck at one of our staff parties. His newest squeeze was Rachel Berry, another of our co-workers and most definitely the single most irritating hobbit to ever walk the face of the earth. I could never understand what he saw in her.

Sensing my confusion, Finn spoke up. "We thought you were the new girl."

"New girl?" I had heard nothing about someone new getting hired and it had only been three days since I had been here last.

"Yeah. She just started this morning. Apparently Zizes came in yesterday and quit out of the blue. Didn't even finish her shift." Puck clarified.

"So, where is this new girl then?" I asked, sourly. It wasn't that I didn't like change, I just wasn't overly fond of new people coming in and stirring the pot.

Instead of answering vocally, both boys nodded their heads in the direction of, what we called, 'The Hole in the Wall', that separates the kitchen from the serving area. I followed their gaze to the tall blonde girl talking animatedly to Will. Even from a distance this girl seemed over zealous but not in the same annoying way as Rachel always was. It was actually rather cute how she spoke using exaggerated hand gestures, even though I couldn't hear what she was saying. I could feel a smile about to betray my lips and I wasn't about to let down the badass front I always kept up at work, so I grabbed a tray and cloth from the counter and moved out onto the shop floor.

"Santana!" Will's voice called after me. I inwardly cringed, having hoped to avoid the awkward, clichéd introductions. Reluctantly I turned around to find Will and the new girl standing much closer to me than they had been a second ago.

"Santana, I'd like you to meet Brittany, she'll be replacing Lauren." The girl stood out from behind Will and pulled me into a tight hug.

"It's awesome to meet you, Santana. I can just tell we're going to be best friends." Once I reeled from the initial shock of the personal space invasion, I pulled out of her embrace, staring at her wildly. Was this girl for real?

I wanted to shout and her, or make a snide remarke about her eagerness, but one look in her innocent blue eyes and I just couldn't bring myself to be snappy. Instead, I nodded my head stiffly and offered an unenthusiastic "Nice to meet you too."

She looked at me curiously and it made me feel less guilty for staring at her. She was extremely beautiful, taller than me by a good bit, with blonde hair that she had scraped back in a ponytail, her eyes sparkled blue and she had this constant, contented smile on her face. She was quite mesmerising. Definitely attractive. But I wavered under _her _stare, beginning to feel uncomfortable by the intensity of her gaze and fighting the strange, uncontrollable urge to reach out and touch her. I actually found myself missing the momentary warmth I had felt in her arms and wished I hadn't been so quick to push her away.

"Santana?" A hand waved in front of my face bringing me back to earth.

"Huh?" I looked a Will.

"I said we're gonna be a little short staffed for lunchtime, Rachel had some audition she had to go to and Mike is doing some volunteer work at a dance camp off so he can't cover for her. Tina and Artie are due in at three. I was hoping you, Quinn and Mercedes could show her the ropes until then, you know, help her out?"

I was only half paying attention to what Will was saying, too distracted by the blue eyes that never left mine. I shook myself out of my reverie, placing my signature look of indifference firmly back on my face and switching my attention back to Will.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Okay, this chapter is significantly shorter than the previous one with the reason being, this chapter is more of a filler than anything. It may seem like the plot is moving slowly but I just wanted to give you an introduction to some characters etc. I didn't get a huge response to the first chapter, but it's still a baby story & I like writing it so I'll continue for those of you interested. Thanks for reading! **

**OH... and just a word of advice... everything may not always be what it seems... make of that what you will ;)**

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><p>Brittany manoeuvred around tables, delivering coffee and snacks with the grace of a gazelle, a nice change from Quinn, who averaged three broken cups a shift. However, this is where the blonde's talents as a barista ended. She was literally a walking cliché for anything that could go wrong in a coffee house. She mixed up orders, put salt in the sugar shakers, sugar in the salt shakers and through it all, remained entirely unfazed, skipping around, humming some jolly, unidentified tune.<p>

Her genuine, kind and cheerful demeanour made her difficult to be angry with; every time she'd do something wrong, I'd go to yell but couldn't quite follow through, so instead settled for assigning her the simple task of wrapping cutlery in napkins.

I escaped to the kitchen, temple throbbing, after yet _another _customer had bitched about their salty tea or sickeningly sweet tasting chicken sandwich, and observed Brittany from 'the hole in the wall'.

"Rough day?" I turned to find Quinn, standing behind me, arms folded and an annoyingly smug smirk on her face.

"You know, you're supposed to be helping with her too." I said, turning back to Brittany again, an air of vexation in my voice.

"Oh, because you were _so _helpful with Kurt." She oozed sarcasm, taking a place by my side which allowed me to shoot her a slightly amused yet somewhat devilish look out of the corner of my eye.

Kurt was our most recent staff member and nightmare trainee. He downright refused to get his hands dirty or wear the apron, he wouldn't serve any customers whose fashion choices he disapproved of and self appointed himself as 'greeter', a position which had not existed until that day, when he made it up.

Similarly to today, Will had asked Quinn and I to help acquaint Kurt with the workings of the shop, a request I had chosen to ignore, leaving Quinn to deal with the handful by herself. I couldn't really blame her for relishing this moment when karma came around to kick my ass.

We stood for a while, watching Brittany and I couldn't help but notice how cute she looked with her tongue sticking slightly out of the corner of her mouth as she worked so meticulously to do good.

The rest of the day passed relatively smoothly with Brittany taking on tasks that would make it virtually impossible for her to mess up.

She proved to be a breath of fresh air in the place. Everyone took to her immediately. Artie showed a particular interest, making subtle flirtatious comments and always trying to get that bit too close; I couldn't help my lips from curling into a satisfied smirk when, every time he shifted nearer, she would shuffle just that little bit further away. Tina and Mercedes seemed to really like her too, which I'll admit, left me a tad jealous that they hadn't taken to me so quickly. Granted, I had somewhat of a reputation for being a bitch which really wasn't my fault, I just try to be really honest with people when I think that they suck. They've warmed to me since.

I followed the final few customers as they exited the shop, bolting the door behind them and flipping the sign to 'closed'. Turning back, I nodded to Puck who was waiting patiently near the speaker system, he didn't need to be told twice before switching off the country music, turning up the volume and allowing 'Empire State of Mind' to flow through the room.

This was something we did every night during clean-up, ignoring Figgins' music rule. Not that it mattered, there was zero chance of him coming by after the shop had closed, he never went out at night for an irrational fear of vampires kept him confined to the safety of his home.

It was customary for us all to sing and dance along, all of our employees were weirdly talented in some form or another and almost everyone could carry a pretty decent tune. I glanced at Brittany whose face had lit up at the sight. She met my gaze and gave me a inquisitive look; I simply shrugged and gestured for her to join in, which she seemed more than happy to do. She sang along and began to move her body in time with the music; suddenly her gracefulness of earlier made so much more sense. She was an _amazing _dancer and I found myself unable to do anything but watch her in awe, she really was something special.

Between us all, it didn't take long to get the place in order, the music making time seem to pass faster.

"Lopez!" I heard the voice of Puck call to me as I stepped out onto the significantly cooler street.

"Hmmm?"

"Your parents left today, right?"

"Yes?"

"So, is it safe to assume the Saturday party will be held in your _humble_ abode, tonight?" He winked at the word 'humble', as it was probably the furthest thing from an accurate description of my house as you could get. My father was a doctor, and a rather successful one at that, who took great pleasure in parading his wealth around, resulting in our three person family living in an unnecessarily large, six bedroom house. It had fast become the go-to house for parties whenever my parents were out of town. Another great thing about working at Coffee Hut was that we never opened on a Sunday, meaning that Saturday night was always known as the 'Saturday party'.

Quinn, who had been walking a little ahead with Mercedes, made her way back and took me by the elbow. "Nuh-uh Puck, tonight's girl's night!"

I almost felt bad at the disappointed look on his face, but I knew shit would shit the fan with Quinn if I tried to skip out on girl's night in favour of the 'Saturday party'.

"What's girl's night?" Brittany, who had been silent since leaving the shop, piped up.

I went to answer, but Quinn got there first.

"Once a month, we get together and have girl's night. Santana and I've done it every month since we were kids, but sometimes the other girls join us too. We basically watch movies, eat junk food and drink wine. But these two" she gestured at Mercedes and Tina, smiling to show she didn't mind, "are ditching us for their boyfriends tonight."

Brittany looked buoyant with excitement at the explanation. "Can I come?"

I was surprised by her forwardness, after all, we only met her today, we had known everyone else for at least two months before we extended an invitation to girl's night. Quinn offered an answer immediately.

"Yeah, of course. Right, San?" Both girls looked at me, Brittany with big eyes full of hopefulness and Quinn with a certain mischievousness about her that made me uneasy.

Nodding, yet keeping a quizzical eye on my best friend for a moment longer, I responded, "Yeah, sure. Why not?"

Brittany bounced on the spot and let out a small squeal. "Oh yay! Kay, here, take my number…" She insisted, grabbing my cell phone from my hand, "and text me with directions."

I nodded again, taking back my phone and watching her run off down the street and into a large, red, jeep, driven by an older looking blonde woman, I assumed was Brittany's mother.

Turning to Quinn who now had a wicked grin on her face, I spoke sceptically, narrowing my eyes, "What are you up to?"

Her expression quickly changed to one of feigned innocence as she sauntered past me, "I don't know what you're talking about."

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><p><strong>*Present Day*<strong>

*Bang* *Bang*

The loud noise on the wooden door caused me to jump and drop the picture from my grasp.

"You almost ready? Hurry up! I don't wanna be late." Quinn's voice was muffled from out in the hallway.

"Yeah. Be there in a sec." I called back, bending down to pick up the picture from the carpet, taking one last, wistful look before placing it back on the dresser and continuing to my closet to find the outfit I had bought especially for today.

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><p><strong>AN 2: Stay tuned for the next chapter which will include GIRL'S NIGHT, that I plan to have up, hopefully tomorrow, but could possibly be Friday... I guess it depends on demand ;) ... Also, for those of you who are not familiar with my fics, I like to take into consideration, what readers want, as long as it won't interfere with the plot, so if there's anything in particular you'd like to see in one of the character's personalities, a scene taking place in a certain setting etc... don't be afraid to tell me and I'll see what I can do! :)**


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